


Sometimes (Almost) Everyone Lives

by shannyfish



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Doctor Who References, F/M, Gen, Malibu House, Parent Pepper Potts, Parent Tony Stark, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Post-Endgame, Tony Stark Lives, geek references
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-21
Updated: 2019-11-21
Packaged: 2021-02-16 13:08:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21508444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shannyfish/pseuds/shannyfish
Summary: Post Endgame.  Tony Stark Lives.  This is the story of what comes next...
Relationships: Happy Hogan & Pepper Potts, Pepper Potts & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Pepper Potts & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe) & Tony Stark
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25





	1. The Void

The darkness had been suffocating.

How could it be suffocating though? Wasn't he dead? Or was this hell? Was this what he would have endure for the rest of everything to come? 

He had expected that if anything that he'd at least be able to glimpse those that had been lost before him… Or maybe that was just him getting hopes up. God, how he missed Pepper though… He remembered her face and her final words to him before everything had slipped away. He'd felt at peace, but now...now that peace was stripped from him. 

The question of it all being worth it had been voiced. 

Was it?

Years ago, before he was even Iron Man...his life he had thought had had meaning...but it had been all a lie. He'd not been anyone that anyone had loved, he'd not made any real difference in the world, and he'd probably not have been missed if he'd driven his car off a cliff in Malibu (or if he'd just not returned from Afghanistan). Everything had changed for him and over the years he knew he'd gone back and forth about whether being Iron Man had been a blessing or a curse… Being Iron Man had changed him, but it hadn't only been being Iron Man...it had been people too. 

Pepper.

Morgan.

He worried about his girls.

He knew he didn't have to.

He still did.

They would be financially taken care of, there was absolutely no doubt in the fact that the Starks would be cared for for generations to come. There was also the fact that Pepper was so much stronger than most gave her credit for. Happy would be there...and then there was every single Avenger. 

"Tony?"

The voice was familiar and yet almost like a siren calling him, this distorted and yet ethereal beautiful voice. He wanted to answer it, but he didn't know how. No matter how he tried to talk, it didn't work. He kept thinking it was Pepper, even though to his ears it didn't quite sound like her. Maybe it was his heart wishing it was her, to not be so alone in the darkness. 

There was a familiar hum of a song, like something that got stuck in your head, but not something he could quite wrap his head around in the form of the song title. He knew what was coming next, though, as the song continued. He knew it. It meant something… It was important, or maybe it was just important to him because it felt like he wasn't alone. Was it the person who had said his name? Was she the one humming? Where was she in the darkness?

Could it be Natasha?

The thought pulled him away from the idea that maybe he could dream up Pepper.

Who else could land in hell with him? It wasn't like he wanted it, but Natasha Romanoff had certainly the record when it came to reasons to land in such a place. He couldn't think of her humming some song to him, though. Some kind of back and forth of banter, that was something he could see...of course, he'd sort of cut himself off from most of them (okay, so it had been all of them) after the snap. Maybe this was the new Natasha, he wished he could call out and ask her though...if it really was her. 

"Tony, we're here…"

There it was again and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't answer them back. It was 'them', right? The use of 'we' hadn't been missed by him. Natasha...Gamora? Who else had been lost? There could be more that were lost during the battle that he just didn't know about… Were they all there together? He didn't feel like people belonged in that dark void...so alone...feeling like they were being suffocated with every thought that brought any metric of comfort. 

He tried to focus.

Focus on anything else.

Their little house.

Maybe he could somehow change the void that he was in and make it someplace he wanted to be. So, he thought of the little house that he, Pepper, and Morgan had lived in for five years happily… 

Nothing changed though.

It was still all black.

A void.

Suffocating.

Tony Stark had a hard time coming to grips with the fact that this was what he'd have to endure forever even though he knew that if it was...it would be for the best reasons. His girls were safe...and the world. Thanos hadn't won. He'd made sure of that, they all had...together. 

"Tony, please…"

His heart felt like it was breaking because that time, he really felt like it had to be Pepper. For a moment, his mind brought up the horrifying possibility that Pepper hadn't made it through the war with Thanos, but he kept going back to the memory of her in front of him telling him that he could rest now...and then he had...and it had all been taken away.

It was all terrifying all of the sudden as he felt like he was gripped tight, like every bone in his body was about to be crushed and the air was expelled from his lungs. The dark suddenly ripped into a bright blinding white. The feeling that he was being tortured and lost and in hell still felt like it was appropriate even given the bright white now. 

It wasn't all white though…

His focus on a single strand of reddish hair calmed him almost immediately, his eye focusing on every detail of it as it just stayed in his vision. 

"Tony?" 

The voice clearly felt like it was Pepper. 

Automatically, he tried to suck in a breath to try to calm his body and yet that seemed to set off a panic and a disconnect of feeling like he could do such a thing within his body.

Blue eyes were standing at him then.

Tony blinked madly, trying to clear his vision of the tears that were flooding his image. Pepper. It had to be Pepper. Why couldn't he breathe? Was he dead? He was suddenly questioning it now.

"Shh...you've got to let the machine do the breathing for you until the doctors say you can be off of it," Pepper told him, her voice breaking. 

A ventilator.

He was on a ventilator.

What had they done to keep him alive? Or to bring him back? Tony wasn't sure if he wanted that question answered, but he was relieved to have Pepper staring down at him. To know that she was right there with him. He wanted to say her name so badly, but he couldn't. So he focused on what he could do in that moment, staring at her and realizing that her fingertips were on his face, cupping it. 

There were so many things to ask.

So many things to say.

So many moments he wanted now.

Morgan…

God how much time had passed?

Was Morgan still the little girl he remembered? Or was this going to be something like Lang had experienced with his daughter? To come back and find his kid grown up? To have missed out on important years? 

"Is he awake?" came another familiar voice. Tony knew that it was Happy Hogan and assumed that they'd probably made arrangements for him to be taken care of at home (whether 'home' was Malibu or New York). "See, he's awake just in time for us to watch the Downton Abbey movie together."

He heard Pepper laugh.

Tony didn't know what his friend was talking about, but he'd gladly watch anything with anyone once he was unhooked from everything. Once he felt like he was a human being again. Was he a human being? The thought wasn't entirely something that was out of the realm of science, especially not his. Limbs could be replaced with robotic ones...but they weren't the only thing. That just brought him more questions he wanted to ask again but he couldn't in his current state. 

"Just be patient," Pepper told him. She pressed a kiss to his forehead and it was like being kissed for the first time all over again. God, he was so lucky. 

Lucky.

Was there a stronger word? 

Whatever that word was, that was really what he was.

Tony didn't know what had happened, who else they'd lost, how he was alive...but he had to be thankful for it. 

= = = = = =

TBC...


	2. Malibu

Eventually the doctors came. He wasn't sure why there were so many, even when they all started talking. He just wanted to hear the answers to all the questions that swirled around in his head from Pepper. Tony found himself finally unhooked from the ventilator and though he had hoped to feel less like he was suffocating, he didn't. The doctors talked to Pepper and he just sort of spaced out while that happened, taking in in better ability his surroundings. 

They had to be in Malibu.

After their mansion in Malibu had been destroyed years back, he and Pepper had made together plans for the new place. It had just been something that had been left to be built. They had enough people to over see it (plus Pepper had always been good at keeping tabs on that kind of thing). He vaguely remembered Pepper talking about it being built, but he knew that it wasn't a quick project (and they hadn't put any time sensitivity on it because living in New York worked for them too). 

"Where?" he finally managed to push out weakly.

Pepper looked over at him and from the face she made, he felt like she had to feel like he looked far more horrible than he actually felt. She dismissed the doctors and then sat at his bedside. "Our home in Malibu," she said gently. 

"How--"

"You should _ rest _ , Tony," Pepper said, emphasizing the rest bit as she ran her fingers through his hair. 

He couldn't rest.

Not with so many questions. 

"Pep…"

"You seemed to drift off while the doctors were talking," she told him. "I know that everything has to be a lot for you to take in." She was quiet for a couple minutes, her fingers still running through his hair and her eyes on him. "It's been several months. You still have so much to recover from...it's not going to be easy or fast. You're going to have to be patient...and I know that's not something that you are a fan of."

He smiled the best he could at that statement. She knew him far too well. He really didn't have to be patient in life because often times he could science or engineer past whatever roadblock was in his way. This though, she was likely right. 

"But Jarvis is here to monitor you."

Jarvis?

"Friday?"

Pepper beamed at his question. "She's still around, don't worry...I just needed something that felt more familiar...and Jarvis' voice feels like it belongs in his house over Friday."

"Fair."

"Morgan will be home in a few hours," Pepper told him. "She didn't want to go to school, but it's been better for her...Happy convinced her. He even sat out in the parking lot in the car for the first couple of days because some of the kids were being jerks." She was quiet for a moment. "She and Peter talk a lot, he'd offered to come and talk to them." Pepper shrugged. "Never have to worry about her feeling like she needs a bigger brother."

Peter Parker.

That kid was something else. He'd never expected to bond with the teen and yet it had happened without his consent. Tony had known that Pepper and Morgan would have been fine without him, but it was good to hear that people were coming together for them just the same. 

"Rhodey is supposed to be stopping in to tell you to stop being lazy and wake up tomorrow," Pepper told him.

"Don't tell him," Tony managed to get out.

She smirked at that. "Just let him still think you're in some kind of coma?" Pepper shook her head. "I'm sure he'd love that."

They were both quiet and even though Tony didn't want to sleep, his body was fighting him over it. "I don't want to rest, Pep," he mumbled weakly. 

Pepper laid down beside him, clearly being careful as she did. "We're going to be here, Tony, and you'll wake up."

"Tell me about everything…"

"Only if you sleep," she whispered. Tony realized that she must have expected him to just pass out at one point because she just started talking. "I thought you were gone, Tony...I really did. We all did." Her voice kept breaking and Tony wondered if part of it was because he still could. "But you were still there, just barely...not registering on anything...and people thought it was some kind of miracle."

Tony grumbled incoherently.

"I didn't care what they called it, it gave me a glimmer of hope...and we fought to keep you with us as long as it seemed like there was a possibility...a  _ true  _ possibility that you would wake up." Pepper was quiet for a moment. "I didn't want you just kept alive by machines and that be it...just to keep you with us." She was quiet again. "But I saw the changes...and I knew that this was working, it was just slow…"

And then the world drifted away again.

This time the void wasn't suffocating, it was warm...there was comfort...and he knew Pepper was there with him.

Maybe he did believe in miracles.

= = = = = = = 

TBC...


	3. Like Parents, Like Daughter

"I'm old enough!"

"How come so sassy today?"

"Have you met my parents?"

"Fair...that's fair…"

Tony had woken up to the voices to find Pepper asleep at his side, she must have fallen asleep when he'd finally done so. He didn't move, not wanting to wake her. He could hear Happy and Morgan, however, and figured it was only a short matter of time between they woke her. In the meantime, he wanted to enjoy just staring at her sleeping. It felt like an eternity that he'd spent in that darkness wishing for her to be there with him...not that he'd wanted her to be stuck in the hellish limbo void, but he hadn't wanted to be alone. 

"Morgan sounds just like you," Pepper whispered, her eyes not opening.

He smiled at that. "That's absolutely not true...sometimes she sounds like you."

He loved it when Morgan sounded like Pepper, he felt like there was some hope that she would be better with life, people, and the world in general...basically anywhere he felt like had been a failing of his growing up. Tony supposed that was a thing, you always wanted your children to be better than you were. That was what he wanted for Morgan, for her to grow up and be spectacular like Pepper in ways that he never appreciated until it was almost too late...but as Pepper told him, but also have his genius. They both just hoped that it balanced out. 

Suddenly the quiet was interrupted by the familiar and yet confusing sound of what sounded like the  _ Doctor Who _ theme song, but it was clearly being sung with words instead of just being hummed. Tony made a face, not sure what to do with what he was hearing...or was he merely hallucinating?

"It's Wednesday," Pepper told him as she opened her eyes to look at him now. "We watch  _ Doctor Who _ on Wednesdays...and whenever it seems like the only thing that will get Morgan to calm down."

" _ Doctor Who _ is my replacement?" Tony questioned, mostly teasing.

Pepper just smiled at him. "You're the one who started making us watch it."

"Don't act like I was torturing you or anything…"

Pepper's face got extremely serious in that moment. "It was torture every day, Tony," she whispered. "Wondering if you were going to wake up. If I'd done the right thing...or if I'd just prolonged keeping you here when you were never coming back to us." Tears rolled down her cheeks. "We'd watch Doctor Who and I'd want to believe the things said in there… That…" Her voice trailed off and she wiped away her tears, clearly trying to be calm enough to speak. "Some days, nobody dies at all. Now and then, Every once in a very long while, every day in a million days, when the wind stands fair and the Doctor comes to call, everybody lives."

"Sweetheart, I'm here," he whispered as he gently brushed her cheek with the back of his hand. "I'm not going anywhere."

Pepper laughed. "I don't believe that."

"What?" he asked in confusion.

"Just wait until you feel more yourself...you'll be in the workshop--"

"I can give it up."

"I'm never asking that of you, Tony," Pepper told him. "When they came to us before...I knew that I'd been right all along...that we couldn't just hide off the grid for forever even as nice as it was." She paused for a moment. "The truth was, we weren't our real true selves there…"

"We were pretty damn fabulous."

"We were," Pepper agreed. 

"And all that time away...it was worth it."

"It was."

It was like the storm couldn't be kept back any longer and the door was burst open. "Dad!" Morgan squealed. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Morgan started to launch herself towards him and the bed and before anything could be said to stop her, Happy merely grabbed her and held her practically mid air. "Okay, maybe we don't squish your dad today...give him some time to get a bit closer to one hundred percent before you try to break a rib or something."

Tony didn't mess the mixture of grumpiness and upset on Morgan's face as she was set down. He held out an arm, trying to get her to come to him. "Come here," Tony said gently. 

Morgan seemed hesitant at first, even when Happy completely released her. Eventually though, she slowly and clearly cautiously climbed into bed and laid down next to him just like her mother was on the other side. "Did you hear me, Dad?" she whispered.

"I don't know," he told her honestly. "Voices didn't sound the same when I was...sleeping."

"The doctors called it a coma," Morgan corrected him.

"Why do you know this?"

"I'm observant," Morgan said. "My brain is like a sponge."

Tony couldn't help but smile at that. God, he wished that he could have heard her. Maybe he had and he just didn't remember. That was totally possible. Tony just didn't want to lie to her. What if she'd told him something that she expected him to remember now? "What did you tell me?" 

"I talked to you all the time," Morgan told him matter of factly. "Sometimes it would be all the stuff that you missed. Sometimes it would be me reading to you. Sometimes it would be singing."

"Sometimes it would be complaining about  _ Downton Abbey _ ," Happy chimed in.

"Sometimes it would be telling you to wake up because mom and I are too sad," Morgan told him. 

The last bit was far too honest and probably hit him the hardest. He'd thought only about himself for the longest time and even pondering anything that had happened once they'd decided to reform the Avengers and save the world, he knew that he'd be putting what he had...his family at risk. What if he really had died? What if he still died? Would he break their hearts? 

"But he's awake now," Pepper said almost too calm.

Tony tried his best to squeeze Morgan, but it was clear that his limbs (and likely his whole body) weren't in the condition he was used to. "And I hear we're going to watch  _ Doctor Who _ ."

Happy grumbled quite loudly and then there was an audible plop. "Can we not watch the episodes with the weeping angels?" 

"They're not even that scary, Uncle Happy," Morgan told him as she rolled a bit away from Tony and in the direction that Happy must have sat down. "I told you...I'd protect you any ways."

"None of you make me feel safer."

Morgan was looking at him now. "We don't _ have _ to watch  _ Doctor Who _ , Dad. We can watch whatever you want...or we can let you rest I guess...because that sounds like something that the doctors would say you need."

It did sound like something that he should be doing. That didn't mean that he could do it or that it was something that he wanted to do. Really, he just wanted to be close to Pepper and Morgan, it didn't matter what they were watching or doing, Tony just wanted them to be together. "Whatever you want to do," he told Morgan. 

"We should call Peter," Morgan said suddenly. 

"Tomorrow," Pepper told her.

And Tony could understand why she wanted to wait. They needed to have time together now, but then there was also the fact that he didn't need the kid to be swinging from one coast to theirs at whatever hour it was...he assumed late afternoon which meant night on the east coast. "That way we get some time in just the three of us."

"Four," Happy corrected. 

Pepper laughed at that.

"Five," Jarvis chimed in.

Oh, it was good to be home. Pepper was right, Jarvis sounded better and felt right with them being in Malibu, though it also made him a little sad about Vision. Not everyone had been snapped back...and not everyone had made it. He worried a bit about the possibility of people that they hadn't told him that hadn't made it...friends. He knew that there was time now, but there was this bit of him that wanted to know everything, to try to emotionally process it (likely fail), and then figure out where they went from there.

"Six if you count that Dalek in the workshop that Morgan's been building," Happy added.

"Dalek?" both Pepper and Tony questioned at the same time.

Morgan shrugged. "I was bored...and I was told that I couldn't make a suit…"

"So you built a Dalek?" Tony continued to try to process what she was saying.

Pepper sighed and shook her head. "At least it wasn't a time machine."

"That was our next project," Morgan said seriously.

"Didn't you install parental controls on Jarvis?" Tony asked Pepper, mostly serious.

Pepper smirked at that. "Oh, I tried to do that long ago, my dear, and it did nothing to keep you safe...or out of trouble."

"Hey," he said, clearly not offended.

She grinned and leaned in and kissed him. 

= = = = = = = =

TBC...


	4. Weekend Plans

"I hate this."

"I know."

"Pep, you don't have to be here."

"You obviously have undiagnosed brain damage if you think I'm leaving," she told him with a roll of her eyes that he didn't miss. 

He hated this. 

Well, he hated a lot of things as of late. It had been three weeks since he woke up from his coma in their Malibu home. Since then, he'd been on the road to recovery, which really meant that he was going to love and hate life in a constant cycle. Right now, he hated everything...well, except Pepper and Morgan (because how could they ever be hated). He hurt and he was frustrated with himself. It wasn't just the infinity gauntlet or the snap that had fried his entire system, but just being in the coma in bed. The nurses had kept his limbs moving, but that didn't do everything that would normally be done from just normally functioning in the world. He'd lost weight and he'd lost muscle mass. He'd also lost a lot of function on his right side. He was definitely a hell ton weaker on the right. 

"Why isn't Banner here?"

"Probably because Bruce had to already put up with you being a grump and he doesn't feel like he should have to be verbally abused by you," Pepper told him in a very matter of fact tone. 

"So he's just off and hiding?"

"I think his words were that he was going to help from a distance."

"He's a coward."

"You know, I should just have Morgan homeschooled until you've recovered fully," Pepper told him.

"Why would you do that? She says she mostly likes school."

"You're in a better mood when she's home," Pepper pointed out. "Also, let me remind you that she's been excited with everyone visiting, so you chasing away Bruce because you're frustrated with where you are isn't winning you any points with our daughter."

"Point taken," he said with a frown. 

Tony hated all of this, especially because there was no way to know if his right side (especially his arm and hand). Bruce's initial treatment while he was comatose had done a lot to speed along healing and to even reverse some of the damage in his right side. The infinity gauntlet had done a lot of damage, but then Tony hadn't expected to live through it. Bruce had also started a sort of exoskeletal cast that was supposed to help. It wasn't just being weak that was an issue for him, it was the fact that he wanted to be able to assist with projects and to feel like things were a little closer to normal...so far, everything felt far from normal. 

"Maybe I can call and convince him to come back this way," Tony said quietly.

"Morgan would just suggest everyone go to the Avengers campus," Pepper pointed out. "But I would say that if we did...we're going for a few days only...or on the weekends. I don't want to completely change her schedule."

"I don't know if I'm up for that, to be honest," Tony told her. 

"Why do you say that?" Pepper asked. 

"Too many people living there...and too much fussing," Tony told her as he crinkled up his nose. He sat there in the chair and then looked towards the silent physical therapist. "We done?"

"We still have thirty minutes left, Mr Stark," the physical therapist told him evenly.

"You know, I'd appreciate it if they sent me someone older," Tony complained. 

"Tony," Pepper reprimanded quickly and clearly disappointment in her tone.

"I'm just saying...I look at him and I think of a friend who used to be annoyingly youthful."

"If you say Steve Rogers I'm going to take that as a huge compliment," the therapist said, there was a glimmer of hope in him.

Tony just stared at him and then looked up at Pepper and then back to the therapist. "No…" he said clearly lying, which only seemed to amuse the therapist. The guy was a good guy, his name was Jose and Tony made the guy think that he never remembered it. He was good at just letting him and Pepper talk throughout the therapy sessions (at least for the most part) and he only really talked when he needed to. Tony was fairly sure that he did it on purpose because Pepper was always there and always pushing him (possibly more than Jose would have). He couldn't even imagine the cheering and push he'd get from Morgan (so probably best that he did it when she was in school, keep from pushing himself too much). 

"Okay, back up," Jose said.

"You know, you're really making me feel my age...plus like eighty years," Tony told him. 

"You're doing great for a guy over a hundred," Jose teased.

Tony just groaned in response. He was really getting too old for these younger men who reminded him of his age. Of course...then he always remembered what a blessing it was that he actually was able to grow old...and then it just felt wrong to complain as he had been. "Maybe we do go to New York for a weekend, just so I can get away from this sadist."

"You were just talking about not wanting to be crowded or fussed over," Pepper reminded. 

He was on his feet and he was doing the workout that he was supposed to be focusing on. He knew that if he complained about having to be babysat while he did it that Pepper would just point out that he just wouldn't do it or he'd give her hell for trying to insist that it was time to do physical therapy workouts. She was right, of course. Pepper was always right. "How about we go and bother Barton?"

Pepper shook her head. "He'd probably come to campus to see you."

"What if I want him to teach me how to shoot with his bow and arrow deal-y?" He honestly wasn't trying to push buttons, it was more that he kept talking in hopes that it would just click and he'd feel like his normal self. In a way it did work. In some ways, it only made him feel less like himself. As much as he didn't want to be surrounded or fussed over, he did miss all the idiots he'd somehow made a family out of.

"There's an archery range at the campus," Pepper reminded. 

She was right.

"You know if you want to see your other kid, you can just say that."

Tony stopped and looked at Pepper confused. "Wait. What?"

"Peter Parker."

"He's not--"

"He might as well be," Pepper told him with a shrug. "Morgan's made sure that he's caught up on  _ Doctor Who _ too. They talk a lot."

"What about?"

"You asking because of the age difference?"

"I mean, yes...and I'm just curious," Tony said with a shrug before going again with his workout. Jose had given him a look to let him know that they needed to keep going. "I can be curious, right?"

Pepper just smiled in response at first. "They talk about everything, Tony," she explained. "Sometimes it's just what happened at school or with their days, sometimes it's about you...and sometimes he helps her with her homework. Peter will call me and e-mail me, let me know if there's anything he feels I should be concerned about...or just to say hi. He's a good kid."

"He's not like way grown up, right?"

"Not too much more than the last time you saw him," Pepper told him with a shake of the head. "I told you, it's not even been a year yet."

"Feels like longer."

"It all feels like longer to me all the time," Pepper commented. 

"Maybe a trip to New York for the weekend wouldn't be a bad idea for everyone," Tony said. "And I promise to do my exercises, John." 

"I'm more concerned that you're going to overdo it," Jose told him honestly. "I know you don't want to hear this, but you need to build in break time and make sure that you're resting enough. Rest is as important to your healing and your health as continuing your exercises and keeping yourself limber."

"Oh, don't worry about that, Pepper will be there," Tony said. 

Pepper shook her head. "Don't act like you listen to me."

"I do!"

"Twelve percent of the time maybe," she shot at him playfully.

He grinned. "Name one time I didn't listen to you."

"That's a long list, Tony," Pepper said completely serious. "How far back do you want me to go? Do you want the list in chronological order? From least to most offensive? Alphabetical order maybe? By geological region? Oh, how about surname of--" 

Tony just stared at her. "Okay, I take it back…" He was a little terrified in that moment because if anyone could list his past offensives, mistakes, and basically any poor life choices...it was Pepper. He had no doubt that she'd forget any of them either. "I take it all back."

"If you only could."

"Mmmm...but then I sometimes make good choices."

"I'm pretty sure that I'm the one who usually makes those in our lives," she teased.

"That's because you're the best choice I made," he said quite seriously as he stared at her. He knew that his past self would be completely floored at where his life had gone...at marrying Pepper and having a kid. Of course, that wouldn't be the only thing that would shock his past self, but they were most definitely the best.

"You sure, Tony? We can always go a different weekend," Pepper said slowly.

She was cautious and he understood why, but he'd also been awake for a while and he was sort of over the whole 'coming to visit a sick friend' thing. He didn't want to be the sick or dying friend anymore. He was alive and he really didn't plan on going anywhere. "Let's just do it this weekend, give it a test drive…"

Even though time had passed since he had woken up, quite a bit, it still felt like he was still somehow playing catch up. It was a good thing and a bad thing, depending on what it was. A lot of it was just feeling like he was being slowly fed information and knowledge of the past months he'd missed out on. He got it though, it was a lot to tell and unload...but it was also a lot emotionally for everyone involved. Tony just was trying to figure out how to live in this world again the best he could.

= = = = = = = =

TBC...


	5. Late Night Conversations

Staring up at the ceiling, he was having a hard time not wanting to get up and go exploring. He knew that as a silly concept, but Pepper and Happy had been working diligently on keeping him in supervisable areas of the house. So far, he's respected those boundaries and he'd even understood the need for them even though that's not what he told them. But he was having a harder and harder time sleeping with every passing day. He often woke, it was either with a thought of a project or it was from some kind of memory… It wasn't exactly nightmares, but it was very much bordering on that dark horizon. 

"What's wrong?"

Tony turned his head to see that she was awake and watching him. "I hadn't meant to wake you."

"I know," Pepper whispered. "But I worry that you've been waking up."

He just stared at her. "Are you some kind of mind jedi now?" Tony swore that he'd been lying as still as possible. Had he been talking before? Had he woken her up in some other way? 

"Don't you think that I know you by now?"

"But this is like some kind of weird sixth sense or something," Tony told her.

She just smiled at that. "You were mumbling...and then you stopped."

"Anything coherent?"

"Sometimes you say my name," Pepper told him. "But I figure that it's dreams and memories…"

"For the most part," he told her honestly. "Sometimes it's distorted reality." 

"And you're just here staring at the ceiling?"

"I wanted to get up and walk…"

"Everyone else is asleep," Pepper told him. "So why not?" She was quiet for a moment. "I used to love being in the house when either no one would be here or everyone was asleep...I thought it was so peaceful."

That's probably why he always liked to hole away in his workshop. It was always so quiet there. "I wanted to walk the house...to--"

"To see everything?" she finished. Pepper sat up so that she was still facing him, pushing hair back away from her face. "Let's go."

"Really?"

"Really."

= = = = = = = 

TBC...


	6. Workshop Musings

They'd ended up down in Tony's workshop. Pepper had tried her best to make it similar to his previous workshops, but in the most intelligent way possible. The whole lower level was considered the 'workshop', but there was a dedicated garage that had a thick divider that was transparent. It kept his vehicles safe from any overflow of lab damage or that was the general idea. There was even a wall that had a row of recreated suits. Pepper had said that Morgan had wanted them...but he had a feeling that Pepper had wanted them just as much. 

"Tell me about Stark Industries."

"Do you really want to know?"

"Yes," Tony said. "Not the boring stuff though."

Pepper laughed. "I think that you think that most of the stuff with Stark Industries is the 'boring stuff'."

She wasn't wrong.

"There's quite a few projects and Bruce has worked on some of them," Pepper told him. "Clean, reliable, and safe energy is always a good one...it being smaller is always desired."

"Arc reactor."

"Not exactly always the safest," she pointed out seriously.

"Baby steps."

"There's been a heavy focus in the medical field."

"Because of me?" Tony asked.

Pepper was quiet for a moment and then tilted her head. "I mean, I might have increased funding and the importance of that department when I came back to work."

"Is it weird?"

"Working?"

"Going into the office," Tony corrected her. It wasn't like he was trying to imply that Pepper didn't work. She'd worked her butt off for years, especially as his assistant and then slowly taking her place as CEO of Stark Industries. She did it all so much better than he did. He didn't mind that, he hated the politics of it all anyways. "After being away for so long…"

"Sometimes," Pepper said. "Being CEO has its benefits...like easily being able to stay home and take meetings and do everything else from here if Morgan is sick...or I just don't feel up to going in." She was quiet for a moment. "But it's made me feel like I was needed somewhere...like I was making a difference."

"It had to be hard."

"It was. It really was," Pepper told him. "There were so many times where I felt like we made a mistake...but then whenever there's some kind of update or happy news from our friends especially that had been affected by the snap...it made it a little better. It wasn't an easy feat to keep happy though or appear to be. I had days where I'd hide away with you and Happy would try his best with Morgan…"

"I can't regret it, Pep."

She stared at him. "I know. I know. I don't want you to. I don't regret it either." Pepper was quiet for a moment before reaching out and covering his hand with her own. "It was  _ our  _ decision, Tony. We made it together. We fought Thanos together. I don't think I've ever been so proud of you."

Tony was quiet as he stared at her. He wondered if this would hang over them for forever or if it would one day just be a lingering memory. Right now, it felt inescapable...but that made sense. It hadn't even been a year yet...and he hadn't been back for long. "I want us to do things as a family, Pep. I want us to have a calendar. I don't want us caught up in Stark Industries or the Avengers or any of that...I want us to make sure that we make the time to be the best parents that Morgan could ever think to have."

Pepper just smiled at him. 

"What?"

"If you ask her, we're already those people."

"She loves _ me _ three thousand, remember?" he teased with a grin.

"I love you three thousand too," she told him before leaning in for a kiss.

Tony pulled her close, holding her and thinking about how absolutely perfect the moment felt. This was what he wanted...the quiet. He hadn't thought about exploring the house with Pepper, but it had been better this way. She'd been able to tell him everything and it had quickly brought him up to speed. Plus, there were the obvious touches that she'd done just for him. That had made it all the sweeter.

= = = = = =

TBC...


End file.
